An African Union summit has opened with the selection of Benin's President Thomas Boni Yayi as AU chairman for the coming year. The opening speeches reflected Africa's increasing shift toward the East.

China is the honored guest at this summit, and the opening session was filled expressions of gratitude for Beijing's gift of a new $200-million AU headquarters.

Speakers referred to China's rising influence in Africa, and to the continent's growing resentment at what is widely perceived as Western interference in African affairs.
AU Commission Chairman Jean Ping described 2011 as a year of trials and hardship, as Western institutions imposed solutions to crises in Libya and Ivory Coast, rejecting or ignoring African proposals.

African heads of state and government have begun arriving ahead of the African Union (AU) summit scheduled to begin in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, Sunday.

Observers say a record number of African leaders are expected to attend this year’s summit.

“Everything is in high gear on preparations for the opening of the summit Sunday,” said AU adviser Keizire Boaz.
Boaz says the leaders are expected to elect the new head of the African Union commission, as well as formulate a framework to promote trade and commerce among African countries.

Hundreds rally in central Tel Aviv to show solidarity for those suffering from racism directed at Ethiopian citizens.
Hundreds rallied in central Tel Aviv on Wednesday night in what organizers and participants said was a show of solidarity for those suffering from racism directed towards Ethiopian Israelis.

Yoyo Avraham, 29, said he came to the protest to increase awareness of what he said is the worsening problem of racism faced by Ethiopians in Israel.
Avraham, who immigrated to Israel at age 9 from Ethiopia, said during his childhood he was cursed at for being Jewish, and in Israel he gets the same treatment because of the shade of his skin.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — A high-ranking Ethiopian government official says a rebel group’s claim that Ethiopian troops killed five European tourists during a gun battle is “pure fiction”.

Ethiopia’s foreign affairs spokesman Dina Mufti said Monday that the statement was completely untrue. Ethiopia has blamed its archenemy Eritrea for the incident.

An unverified Jan. 21 statement claiming to be from an obscure rebel group in Ethiopia’s arid northern Afar region claimed gunmen clashed with Ethiopian soldiers.

Islamist militants have launched a suicide truck bomb attack on an Ethiopian military base in central Somalia, witnesses say.
Al-Shabab says it killed 10 Ethiopian soldiers in the attack in the town of Beledweyne but this has not been confirmed.

Ethiopian forces seized Beledweyne from al-Shabab last month.

Kenyan troops have also entered Somalia to battle the al-Qaeda linked group which still controls many areas.

Beledweyne is a strategic town, 30km (20 miles) from the Ethiopian border on the main road to the capital, Mogadishu, and also on the major artery linking the north and south of the country.

African Union summit meetings officially kicked off in Ethiopia’s capital Monday with ministerial gatherings, and an agenda that includes a leadership battle.

The session in Addis Ababa began with a minute of silence dedicated to the late Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai and the late African commissioner Elisabeth Tankeu.

African Union spokesman Noureddine Mezni said Monday's and Tuesday’s meetings primarily are discussions designed to set the groundwork for the African Union’s 18th summit a week from now.

ADDIS ABABA — Gunman killed five European tourists and kidnapped two other foreigners as they visited the famed Erta Ale volcano in the remote northeast of Ethiopia, the government said on Wednesday.

Officials in Addis Ababa said the attack on Monday had been carried out by gunmen who had been armed by Eritrea, an accusation fiercely denied by the government in Asmara.
The five, from Germany, Belgium, Hungary, Italy and Austria were all visiting the Erta Ale volcanic site in the remote Afar region near the Ethiopia-Eritrea border, Ethiopia government spokesman Bereket Simon told AFP.

Ethiopia is to withdraw from areas it has recently captured in neighbouring Somalia with its troops to be replaced by African Union (AU) soldiers.
The decision was made by the AU's Peace and Security Council, which met to finalise boosting its Somali force.
It wants the UN to approve a new figure of 17,731, which would include the absorption of Kenyan troops. They entered the country in October in pursuit of al-Shabab militants, who control much of southern Somalia. The al-Qaeda-linked group is now battling on several fronts, with forces from Kenya and Ethiopia, as well as local militias, taking ground recently.

ADDIS ABABA — An Ethiopian court on Tuesday sentenced two Swedish journalists to 11 years in jail for supporting terrorism and entering the country illegally, after a trial criticised by rights groups.

"The sentence should be punishment of 11 years imprisonment," Judge Shemsu Sirgaga told the court in the Amharic language through a translator.

A visit to an Ethiopian church can be a confusing experience for Westerners. There they find the Christian religion they know from back home, but it comes in an exotic form which is sometimes reminiscent of, say, India. Then again in some respects Ethiopian Christians resemble Muslims. The atmosphere in the churches is informal, and the way people dress and pray is similar - they kneel down and touch the floor with their foreheads.

A new Geothermal Risk Mitigation Facility will help attract investment for the construction of geothermal power plants in Eastern Africa by partially offsetting the high financial risk prompted by unsuccessful exploratory drilling. A grant totalling €50 million has been made available for this purpose. The signing ceremony took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 13 December 2011.

Geothermal energy is a low-cost solution for power generation in the region: the Eastern Africa Rift System offers huge opportunities for the generation of geothermal energy. It has the potential to raise Eastern Africa’s electricity generation capacity from around 4 000 MW to 15 000 MW. It delivers emission-free electricity reliably whatever the weather.

Having over six years of experience in participating in opposition parties, Gizachew Shiferaw (Eng.), who served in high levels of party leadership, has made an announcement that he has resigned from his position in the party — Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ) — at the 2nd general assembly on December 11, 2011 at the Hotel d’Afrique off Dej. Wolde Mikael Street near Mexico Square. Gizachew presented his resignation request to the members of the general assembly and stated that he aid not want to continue in UDJ’s leadership due to not having the capacity or inclination to continue in political life and finding that his 'force for politics had been extinguished from within him'.

United Nations Security Council placed additional sanctions on Eritrea on Monday for continuing to provide support to armed groups seeking to destabilize Somalia and other parts of the Horn of Africa. The Council imposed the extra sanctions building on the arms and travel embargoes it imposed exactly two years ago. The new measures are contained in a resolution which received the support of 13 of the Council’s 15 members. China and Russia abstained.

MOGADISHU — The Shebab Islamist insurgent group warned Ethiopia on Sunday that any military intervention in Somalia will result in "heavy" losses for its neighbour.

Ethiopian troops, who ended a three-year incursion in Somalia in 2009, were reported to have once again crossed the border last week as part of an offensive against the Shebab, a claim denied by the government in Addis Ababa.

Ethiopia will deploy troops inside Somalia for a "brief period" to help Somali and Kenyan forces battling Islamist militants expand their control in southern Somalia, Ethiopian officials said on Friday.

A government official also acknowledged for the first time that a small force had already rolled across the border to carry out reconnaissance missions. Ethiopia had previously denied that scores of military trucks and armoured vehicles had moved in on November 19 and 20.